Luxe Continues Rebound As High End Tops Comps, Dwarfing Middle Ground

NEW YORK — Two years after launching her highly successful women’s scent, Vera Wang is gearing up to launch its mate: Vera Wang for Men. The aromatic oriental scent enters Saks Fifth Avenue exclusively in January, then rolls out to its full…

The high-end crowd sustained its strong performance in October, but much of the rest of retail simply was unable to keep up September’s strong pace.

An upbeat Patrizio Bertelli told a financial conference that Prada Group expects a 45 percent increase in net profit this year.

Brigitte Kleine, the U.S. president of Alexander McQueen,will join Michael Kors Inc. as president of the Michael Kors Collection women’s division.

Travel-retail executives are taking a long, hard look at the way they do business, and many are calling for a total revamp.

Joseph Horowitz, president and chief executive of Groupe Clarins’ U.S. subsidiary, Clarins (USA) Inc., will retire as a full-time employee on July 1.

• LEVI’S EURO SIGNATURE: Levi Strauss & Co. is solidifying distribution plans in Europe for its nascent mass-market brand, Signature, which has already bowed in the U.S. in Wal-Mart stores. On Thursday, Levi’s said Carrefour…
  

Gwyneth and her Spanish castle…Zara Phillips on the town…Whitney’s real life…Chanel’s sweet suite.

Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, Conn., has become a hotbed of retail activity. Here’s what’s happening.

Faced with cheaper competition from countries like China, Turkey can no longer be the world’s clothing assembly line. So it must take a different tack.

Two years after Vera Wang tied the knot with her first scent, she’s working the other side of the aisle, with Vera Wang for Men bowing in January.

NEW YORK — Lancôme will launch Resolution Eye D-Contraxol in January as the follow-up to the introduction last year of its Resolution anti-aging face cream.

Dalia Chammas, senior vice president and general manager of Lancôme…

HUNT VALLEY, Md. — Like the girl next door, Cover Girl is fresh, clean and fun. Once in a while she exhibits a bit of sassiness but she is never bad. And her parent of 14 years, Procter & Gamble, intends to keep raising her that…

KARAN PROMOTION: Diane Kim has been promoted to vice president of global marketing for Donna Karan Cosmetics. She will report to Veronique Gabai-Pinski, senior vice president, general manager, Designer Fragrances. Kim was executive director,…

NEW YORK — Almay is giving its color some lip.

In January, the Revlon-owned hypoallergenic brand will introduce Whipped Gloss, which it claims is a new innovation in lip color, as the only gloss that “whips” together…

Lotta Luv hopes Snapple – the latest in its stable of 30 candy, snack and beverage licenses – will add pop to sales of lip glosses.

NEW YORK — While eponymous beauty lines may be nothing new in the world of makeup artistry, one artist — Scott Barnes —is taking a road less traveled with the rollout of his own newly created cosmetics collection.

Barnes, who…

NEW YORK —?Veteran retailer Dale Crichton of Nordstrom is the latest industry heavyweight to enter the Fragrance Foundation’s Circle of Champions.

At a dinner held Monday at the St. Regis Hotel, Crichton, who is executive vice…

DALLAS — Maybe there really is such a thing as good stress.

The $10.7 billion U.S. spa industry certainly thinks so, as it continues to grow by triple digits thanks to stressed-out consumers who increasingly view a trip to the spa as a…

MAKING CHANGE: Not-for-profit group b•cause celebrated the kickoff of its annual fund-raising drive, Make A Change Day, Wednesday night at John Allan’s men’s club and salon on 46 East 46th Street. The four-year-old…

Here’s more on the travel-retail buzz, as heard at the Tax Free show:

“Asians — especially Chinese — are the new travelers,” said Renato Semerari, president and managing director at Guerlain. “We will be…

Beauty brands and airport retailers are increasingly focusing on male travelers. That’s because “men’s skin care is the fastest-growing [beauty segment],” said Nigel Keal, head of category, fragrance and cosmetics, at World…

BPI’s Eric Henry said that the firm’s limited edition Issey Miyake scents have been so successful they sell out in 10 days.

“Summer is more key in travel retail than the local market,” he said, explaining that’s…

In many instances, brands are thinking globally but acting locally in their approach to beauty. But La Prairie, with its new line of body care products — including a shampoo, conditioner, bath and shower gel, plus soap and allover body mist…

• YSL Beauté, Gucci Group’s beauty division, is working on a new Boucheron women’s fragrance, set for launch next year in France and the U.S. — complete with a new image for the brand. It’s also creating a new Van…
  

ROSIE ON THE STAND: Defendant Rosie O’Donnell testified Thursday in New York State Supreme Court in her legal dispute with Gruner + Jahr, the magazine company which is suing her for walking away from their joint venture, Rosie…

NEW YORK — On the surface, the British novelist Jim Crace isn’t someone you’d peg as a sentimentalist.

His last novel, “Being Dead,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1998, chronicled the…

NEW YORK — Nicole Miller’s seven-year-old son, Palmer, was not up for going to Oxygen Network’s Custom Concert, featuring Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne, at The Supper Club Tuesday night. But all complaints stopped when Avril hit…

NEW YORK — It was a record-breaking event — again.

The American Friends of the Israel Museum held its annual gala at the Waldorf Astoria here Monday, raising $1.9 million.

The theme, Gala To Life, celebrated the…

The art of entertaining travelers is now known as “traveltainment” by the trade. The word means anything that gets shoppers pumped up.

It’s key to create a lather of excitement, since these days the penetration rate for…

MONTREAL — Gildan Activewear has become the first Canadian company and first blank T-shirt maker to become a member of the Fair Labor Association.

The FLA is an independent verification agency that promotes adherence to international labor…

NEW YORK — Kevin Belden, executive director of integrated marketing at Condé Nast Publications, died Tuesday.

Belden, 40, collapsed at his desk Tuesday and was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital here after several attempts to…

SILVER SCREEN: Talk about déjà vu. A little-known 1979 documentary about 10 leading Paris designers — screened Thursday in Paris after being unearthed by industry consultant Jean-Jacques Picart and restored with the financial…

WASHINGTON — The dwindling ranks of U.S. apparel makers could generate millions of dollars in new business from the federal government as U.S. prisoners curtail their production, under legislation the House approved Thursday redrawing rules under…